Examining Adolescents' Patterns and Predictors of Reporting Peer Victimization

Abstract

Bullying is a significant public health issue for school-aged youth that affects a large proportion of students and contributes to broad range of negative outcomes. The high prevalence of bullying and the numerous implications for students’ overall well-being necessitates an effective intervention approach. However, the efficacy of anti-bullying programs is mixed and research suggests that a cornerstone of many anti-bullying programs—reporting the victimization to an adult—may only be happening less than half of the time. This low rate of reporting is troubling, as it is likely to perpetuate victimization. The current study explored adolescents’ reporting behaviors by investigating potential factors that may contribute to their reluctance to report bullying (experienced and witnessed) in a large sample of adolescents (n= 8,462). Results showed that age, minority status, type of bullying, and affective reaction were significant predictors, and that reporting behaviors were also consistent with outcome expectancy theory, in that if students expected an ineffective or negative outcome following reporting, they would not report. This study provided invaluable insights into how to support anti-bullying efforts and how to encourage student reporting of bullying, including bolstering support for ethnic/racial minority students and LGBTQ students and improving teachers’ and other school staff’s responses to reports of victimization.